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For those looking for Time Machine like backup software, Cronopete is a Linux backup utility modeled after Apple’s time machine.

“The name comes from anacronopete (“who flies through time”), which is a time machine featured in the novel from Enrique Gaspar y Rimbaud, and published in 1887 (eight years before than H.G. Wells’Time Machine).”

Install Cronopete backup tool in Ubuntu:

The software project page so far offers packages for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and other Linux.

To simplify re-installation of software packages after upgrading or re-installing Ubuntu, aptik is a simple tool allows to backup software sources (PPA), installed software, and other user data with just a few clicks.

Systemback is a simple backup and restore application for Ubuntu Linux that makes it easy to create backups of system and users configuration files. In case of problems you can easily restore the previous state of the system.

With systemback, you can create a Windows like system restore point by clicking on the Create new button.

It will take a few minutes backing up system files and user configuration data. User files such as documents, pictures and music are excluded. During this time, you can click the Interrupt button to cancel the process.

Once you created a restore point, it will be list in the main window with a name looks like “2014-7-11, 20.50.47” (see the first picture). Choose it and you’re able to click the System restore button. Then you can easily restore your system status to the time you create the point.

Under the function menu, click the green arrow button, you’ll see a button Schedule which allows you to create restore points in a scheduled time.

Besides creating restore points, the tool also allows to:

Copy system from one partition to another

Create new user, set root password, change hostname.

Create a Live CD/DVD/USB from current system with or without user data.

System file repair, Grub2 repair.

Upgrade your Ubuntu to next release

Install Systemback in Ubuntu 14.04:

The latest stable v1.0 (qt5 port) is available in the developer’s PPA for Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.04. A old stable version is also available for Ubuntu 12.04.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the commands below one by one will add the PPA and install Systemback:

Aptik is a new tool to simplify re-installation of packages after doing a clean installation of an Ubuntu-based distribution. It can be used while re-installing or upgrading to the next Ubuntu/Linux Mint release.

With this simple tool, you can backup & restore:

Software Sources (PPAs.)

Software selections (list of installed packages)

Downloaded Packages (APT Cache)

Themes and Icons

How to Use Aptik:

Plug-in your pen drive and create a new folder on it named ‘backups’. Start Aptik and select the new folder as the backup directory.

1. Backup PPAs:

Click on the Backup button and you’ll see a list of third-party PPAs as well as the installed packages from PPAs.

PPAs with a green icon are active and have some packages installed.

PPAs with a yellow icon are active but unused (no packages installed).

Select the PPAs to backup and click the Backup button. A file named ‘ppa.list’ will be created in the backup directory.

2. Backup Software Selections:

Click on the Backup button will display a list of installed top-level packages. These packages are top-level packages. Dependency packages will not be listed.

All packages that are a part of the Linux distribution are un-selected by default. For example, Firefox is a package that is installed by default on most Linux distributions. Since it came with the distribution, it will be un-selected by default. It can be selected if required.

A file named ‘packages.list’ will be created in the backup directory after you clicked no the backup button.

3. Click the Backup button for Downloaded Packages will paste packages from your system cache (/var/cache/apt/archives) to backup folder.

4. Similarly, all themes and icons from the directories /usr/share/themes and /usr/share/icons can be zipped and saved in the backup folder.

To restore backups:

Connect your pen drive to the new system. Install and then start Aptik and select the backup folder on the pen-drive as the backup directory. Click on the Restore buttons and select packages, PPAs, themes and restore them one by one.

About the “Fix Ownership of Home folder”:

The home folder can be manually copied to another location and then restored after doing a fresh install. However, it can sometimes cause problems if the user’s login name or UID is different from the previous one. Click the Take Ownership button to change ownership of files in your home directory to your current login ID. This is same as running the following command:

sudo chown username -R /home/username

How to Install Aptik:

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run below commands one by one: